Ealing neighbourhood plan heads for vote

Residents in Ealing’s central area will be voting on Thursday 12 October on a neighbourhood plan.

It’s the first neighbourhood plan in London for a business area, and only the second in the country. If approved in the referendum being held next week, it will be incorporated in the local statutory plan and used to help decide on planning applications for development in the area.

The Central Ealing Neighbourhood Plan (CENP) has been put together by the local Neighbourhood Forum, which includes residents and workers, as well as self-employed business people, directors of Make It Ealing (the local BID), members of the Civic Society, voluntary organisations, arts bodies and representatives of the University of West London and Ealing & West London College.

Forum Chair Tony Miller said: “Our policies aim to ensure that development builds on the features which made Ealing the ‘Queen of the Suburbs’ – its green and open spaces, the special character of its buildings and their human scale, and its history of arts and culture. In preserving what is best and offering a range of shopping and other attractions, the town centre can compete on its own terms with the newer, soulless retail parks.”